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Wow this week looks to be quite the week for new cell phones. First pics show up of the next version of the Incredible, then Sprint announces price and launch info for their dual-screen Kyocera Echo, and then T-Mobile took the wraps off the new Sidekick 4G. Today, this week of awesome cell phone news continues with Verizon and HTC finally revealing when Verizon’s first 4G LTE phone will finally be available. When is this elusive date and how much will this 4G beast cost you? Try this Thursday, March 17th, for $249.99 with new 2 year contract and data plan.

We know the cost seems like a bit much (all the other 4G phones on AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile all are under $200), but considering all that you get here it’s not too bad. A brief recap of the specs:

4.3 inch Super LCD screen– Basically, an awesome screen.

8 megapixel back camera with HD video recording with front facing 1.3 megapixel camera for video chat–Just like the EVO 4G. And while the 1.3 megapixel isn’t as insane as that dream rumor of 5 megapixel for the front, it’s still pretty impressive and should offer some solid video chat of its own.

Mobile hotspot– For sharing that 4G goodness with up to 8 other WiFi devices you own like your laptop or iTouch.

40 GB of storage out of the box!– We’re talking 8 GB built-in and an additional 32 GB(!) on a microSD card. Yeah, you can store a ton of music, movies and pix on here.

But here’s the best part: Verizon’s 4G data plan? It’s unlimited internet for the same $29.99 a month you’d be paying for unlimited internet on a 3G-only iPhone, Droid or BlackBerry. Yes, unlimited internet at 5x faster speeds for the same price. And unlike Sprint, Verizon isn’t charging an additional $10 “premium data” fee for the right to use their 4G network.

So there you have it, Verizon’s first 4G phone will finally be at your local Verizon store in 2 days. You gonna go pick one up?

While we all keep waiting for HTC and Verizon to release their highly anticipated 4G beast– the ThunderBolt first announced at CES in January and said to be coming any day now– new info has come out on another very impressive HTC/Verizon Droid: the successor to the extremely popular Droid Incredible. AndroidSPINhas gotten hold of some pix and specs of the new, unannounced device and wow does it look nice.

Specs here include a 4 inch high-res Super LCD screen (read: really nice screen), 1 GHZ processor with 768 MB of RAM (for excellent speed– this is the same as on AT&T’s HTC Inspire 4G which we found to be incredibly fast), 8 megapixel back camera with flash and HD video recording AND a 1.3 megapixel front camera for video chat (like on the ThunderBolt), and last but not least– Android 2.3 Gingerbread possibly with HTC Sense (about time we see phones with this latest and greatest version of Android come out).

For now this is all just rumors, and both HTC and Verizon have not commented or confirmed any of this (and obviously they haven’t shared other important details like if will also have 4G, when it will come out, and how much it will cost). If we had to guess we should learn more next week at CTIA 2011 in Orlando (which we’ll be at live!)– so if you’re looking for a new Verizon Droid, try to wait it out for another week or so.

The first two months of 2011 have been pretty big ones for AT&T– first in January they announced their first three 4G phones at CES and then releasing the first two of them last month—the HTC Inspire 4G and the Motorola Atrix 4G. For the last two weeks we’ve been testing the first of AT&T’s 4G phones, the HTC Inspire 4G, and we gotta say for the carriers first 4G phone its pretty impressive.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen some new Windows Phone 7 phones (we really haven’t seen any new ones since last fall when Microsoft released the new OS), and it’s been even longer since we’ve seen a new Windows Phone come to Sprint. Thankfully for all you Xbox-loving, Zune listening, Windows Phone 7 fans on Sprint your wait to get your hands on the first Windows Phone 7 phone for Sprint is almost over with Sprint and HTC’s official announcement of the new HTC Arrive (also known as the 7 Pro as we told you earlier in the week). And the Arrive looks to be worth the wait, with not just some pretty solid specs but also a sleek design that looks to make it one of the top Windows Phone 7 phones currently out there. Here’s the full specs:

3.6 inch high-res screen with full slide out, tilting QWERTY keyboard– As we told you last week and as you can see in the pic above.

1 GHZ processor— For making sure all your texting, browsing, gaming and everything else you do on your phone goes fast and smooth.

5 megapixel camera with flash and HD video recording

16 GB of built-in storage— For lots of music, movies, pix and games.

3G, GPS and WiFi

And this phone will also run the latest Windows Phone 7 update, called “NoDo,” which brings some nice updates to Windows Phone 7 including faster launching of apps and games, better searching for apps in the Marketplace, and also the long-awaited inclusion of copy and paste.

The Arrive will be available in a little under a month, March 20th, for $200 on a new 2 year contract with data plan and $100 mail in rebate. You can pre-order the Arrive today at Sprint stores with the purchase of a $50 gift card (which you can then use next month to buy the phone).

It looks like this Thursday will be some crazy day for new tech. First you got the seemingly more and more likely Apple MacBook Pro update (Apple’s own site has changed the shipping dates for MacBook Pros orders from the usual 24 hours to a now 3-5 day wait— yes that would coincide perfectly with a new Thursday MacBook Pro update), the Motorola Xoom tablet comes out for Verizon (albeit, at a ridiculously high $800 price. Oh, and you need to pay for at least one month of Verizon service– which starts at $20 for 1 GB of data– for WiFi to be “unlocked” on the tablet. Weird and really annoying we know), and from this above tweet Sprint plans to have something big of their own planned for Thursday.

Now what exactly this new phone is no one knows yet. It seems a little early for the recently unveiled Kyocera Echo to be this mystery phone, as Sprint said it wouldn’t come until “Spring” (and judging by the weather here in New York today winter seems to still be going strong– though we would love an early spring). Whatever this is, the wait should only be a few more days and you can make sure we’ll have it covered for you here.

UPDATE: And it looks like this little second Sprint tweet will give us an answer– this mystery phone is Sprint’s first Windows Phone 7 phone, the HTC 7 Pro. Think about it, the main focus of Windows Phone 7 is hubs– specifically ones for gaming, music, videos, people etc– exactly what was mentioned in the new tweet.

The 7 Pro was said to be coming to Sprint ever since Microsoft announced Windows Phone 7 last year and is a pretty impressive phone– 3.6 inch high-res screen with full slide out, tilting QWERTY keyboard (see the pic after the break for what we mean), 5 megapixel camera with HD video recording, 1 GHZ processor, and 8 GB of built-in storage. All in all if this is indeed what Sprint has in store, Thursday should be a solid day for Sprint users. You can see a shot of the second tweet and one of the HTC 7 Pro after the break.

Remember how last year we wrote about all this talk of Facebook actually making dedicated Facebook phones? Well, contrary to Facebook’s denial of such things last year it looks like there are gonna be some special Facebook-focused phones coming later this year to AT&T thanks to HTC.

Today at MWC HTC took the wraps off of these two new phones– the ChaCha (pic above) and the Salsa (pic below), two Android powered phones with as you’d expect, a heavy emphasis on Facebook.

The Facebook loving HTC Salsa

The Salsa looks a lot like any other HTC phone with a sleek 3.4 inch all touchscreen design, while the ChaCha looks more “BlackBerry-ish” with its full physical QWERTY keyboard underneath its smaller 2.6 inch touchscreen. Both phones also feature a dedicated Facebook button on the bottom of their respective designs for one-touch Facebook sharing. One tap of that button and you can instantly share whatever you’re doing– what song your listening to, what restaurant you just “checked-in at” or what website you just looked at– with all your Facebook friends.

Specs wise both are pretty similar: Both have a 5-megapixel back camera with auto focus and LED flash and a VGA front-facing camera for video chat, Android with HTC Sense (including new widgets for Facebook chatting from the homescreen), 600 MHZ processors (not gonna be EVO or ThunderBolt fast, but should be more than enough for constantly updating your Facebook all day. And this lower processor speed should allow for much better battery life so you can stay connected even longer), and a 480 x 320 resolution screen (again not as powerful as HTC’s other Android phones, but more than enough for the target goal of Facebooking 24/7).

The question is though, can this succeed where the Microsoft KIN phones failed? I mean, if the price is similar to what AT&T is charging for an iPhone, BlackBerry, Inspire 4G or Atrix 4G wouldn’t you just want to go with the much more powerful phone and use the very good iOS, BlackBerry or Android Facebook apps that millions are currently using today? Personally, unless there is some special data plan (this is where I think the KIN really failed– smartphone price for a phone that clearly wasn’t a smartphone) that makes monthly data cheaper on these phones compared to those “normal” AT&T smartphones I’d go with a normal smartphone and just use a Facebook app.

But that’s just me– what would you do? Do you want a specific “Facebook phone” or are you more than happy with a more powerful phone and a Facebook app? Let us know in the comments.

If you haven’t noticed recently, there’s a little battle going on between the big 4 US wireless carriers– AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint– and that is the race to 4G. All four carriers have begun launching their own respective 4G networks and are deploying them across the US as we speak. Now obviously if you’re looking for a new phone today and are planning to buy it at its cheaper (also known as subsidized) price, the one you get with a 2 year contract, you’re gonna wanna get one that takes full advantage of these 4G networks.

For the past couple of weeks we’ve had a chance to take a look at the T-Mobile G2 by HTC, T-Mobile’s first 4G phone. So, what do we think? Read on for our full teen review!

Looks like that Amazon leak last week had something to it after all. Today AT&T and HTC have announced the first AT&T 4G phone will be the Inspire 4G when it launches in just under two weeks, February 13th, for an incredibly solid $99.99 on new 2 year contract and data plan.

Just to recap the Inspire 4G’s features, we’re talking about a very impressive phone with not just that 4G but also a 4.3 inch high-res screen with aluminum casing, 8 megapixel camera with flash and HD video recording (but no front camera), ability to turn the 4G into a WiFi hotspot, HTC Sense 2.0 with new features like tracking down your phone, 12 GB of built-in storage, HTC Hi-Fi for surround sound (featuring Dolby and SRS surround sound for awesome audio quality), 1 GHZ processor, and Android 2.2.

All in all, this looks like a very solid deal particularly for $99.99. So, will this keep you from bailing on AT&T for the Verizon iPhone next week?

Well that was quick. Yesterday Motorola’s CEO Sanjay Jha said that the Atrix 4G will be coming sometime next month, and today we’ve got an appearance on Amazon— with a possible price and release date to boot. And it gets even better. The price? $149.99, which is ridiculously awesome for a phone like this (we for sure thought it would be the standard high-end smartphone price of $199.99, or possibly more considering all the power that’s in here). Oh, and the release is pegged at possibly February 11th, which is a lot earlier than the “late February” said by Motorola yesterday. Perhaps this is AT&T’s way of countering some other big cell phone launch a day earlier?

Oh, and HTC’s new 4G phone for AT&T, the Inspire 4G, has also been spied today on Amazon, and while we haven’t gotten a release date on this bad boy, a leaked possible price of $99.99 makes this one heck of a choice for a new phone too.

We’ve reached out to Motorola and HTC for comment and will update if we hear anything back. Until then, consider all of this to be just rumors and very subject to change. But if the Atrix and Inspire did launch for these prices would you go for it as your next AT&T phone (and if your thinking of switching to Verizon for the iPhone 4, will this help you to stay with AT&T)?

Having trouble choosing between getting that new Verizon iPhone or going for the AT&T one? Well, T-Mobile (whose not new at attacking the iPhone and AT&T with ads) has put out a new ad today to help, touting their speedy myTouch 4G, fast 4G network and $10 200 MB data plan (the cheapest of any of the carriers data plans and great if you want internet but are mainly using it for email, IM, light web browsing– like going to ESPN or Facebook– and not watching a ton of YouTube or video chatting when not on WiFi).

Of course, if you’re on T-Mobile and really wanted only an iPhone 4 as your next phone you’d have to think about either switching to Verizon or AT&T (or unlocking one and using it on T-Mobile’s much, much slower 2G– not 3G or 4G– network), but something tells me that’s not the message T-Mobile is going for here.